State sponsored fear

A recent police-funded counter-terrorism campaign within the United Kingdom has resulted in the appearance of large billboards encouraging members of the public to inform on their neighbours, based on the ‘suspicious’ contents of their dustbin (=trashcan).

As with similar previous campaigns, the appeal to fear made by such billboards has been heavily ridiculed by online commentators as both overly simplistic and having disturbing Orwellian overtones.

By generating a moral panic over out-groups, and so encouraging the view that differences between people should be regarded with suspicion, the campaign is widely regarded as clumsily undermining relationships between the different ethnic and cultural groups making up British society.